Bauchi-based Makkah Specialist Eye Hospital, run by the Al-Basar International Foundation, has disclosed that the foundation had spent N60,120,000 on free surgeries for patients with cataract and other eye defects, according to its manager, Mr Abdullahi Badamasi.
Badamasi disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi, on Monday.
He said that 1,200 patients were selected from over 10 Local Government Areas of the state, with 60 out of the number from neighbouring Plateau state.
Badamasi further explained that the sum of N50,100 was usually charged by the hospital for surgery on each patient, however, “we do receive humanitarian donations from our head office in Saudi Arabia, to embark on free services.
” It is a yearly exercise and we have been doing it since the inception of the foundation in Bauchi state.
“This year, we were given 1,200 patients to be operated on, free of charge. Immediately, we received the donation from our head office, we liaised with the Ministry of Health in such a way that the ministry would contact each local government.
“More than 10 LGAs cooperated with us and we went, we conducted the screening and selected the patients.
“That was why thousands of people were mobilized to the hospital. The programme is in three phases, the first was to operate 400 patients, same with the second and third phases, which makes it 1,200 patients operated.
“If you want to pay for this kind of surgery in the hospital here, it is N50,100 for each eye and if you multiply this money by 1,200, it gives us N60,120,000,” said Badamasi.
The manager added that the exercise had re-awakened hope in people who had become despondent about ever regaining their sight.
“We found six-year old children, seven and eleven years old who had bilateral cataracts. These children could not see since they were born and we are very happy that after conducting surgery on them, they can now see and you need to see how their parents are so happy.
“They never believed that their children could live to see. They had given up hope as they didn’t have the money to undergo the surgery,” the manager said.
He also explained that the exercise was such a success that the state governor, Bala Mohammed, visited the eye hospital on June 24, to see things for himself.
According to the manager, the governor had assured the hospital of government’s support to the foundation to help more persons with similar challenges.
“He saw all the patients that had been operated on, he saw those that were about to be operated on and those that were on admission. He even went further into the theatre to see the surgeons and how they were operating patients.
The manager said that the governor was very impressed and promised to support the hospital with more facilities saying, ”if we can have more of these facilities in Bauchi, it will reduce the number of cases of blindness in the state.”
The Al-Basar International Foundation, a non-profit International NGO, was established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1989, to work in the field of prevention, eradication and control of blindness and other eye diseases.
